Tom Marioni
Through October 26 - The Long Conversation at Southern Exposure. Technically this is both an exhibition and performance series, and I would urge you not to miss the live event in the gallery this Friday evening that will feature Anne Walsh and Moira Roth, Christian Nagler, and Mike Lai with Charming Hostess. The exhibition component is chock full of goodness too as it seeks to create that conversation of the title among artists who have at one time called the Bay Area their home. The emphasis is on the sort of "idea-based, experimental and time-based artwork" the West Coast became famous for in the '70s and that strongly influences many local artists today. I appreciated the way the so-called old and new guard are juxtaposed, i.e. Bessma Khalaf straddling a disintegrating ice horse right next to Paul Kos whistling "The Internationale." A strong thread of humor runs through the show as well, such as in Mads Lynnerup's hilarious chair massage piece or in Tony Labat's video of individuals drinking from a water cooler. A must-see for anyone interested in the legacy of West Coast art, or if you just want to wish SoEx a happy 39th birthday.
Stephanie Syjuco
Through October 26 - This Is the Sound of Someone Losing the Plot at Catharine Clark Gallery. This is the first exhibition in Catharine Clark's gorgeous new space in the newly-minted "art alley" of Utah Street, and they pay tribute to their Potrero environs here by hosting work by a group of CCA professors and alums. Curated by Anthony Discenza, a notable artist himself, the show has a killer opening volley in Stephanie Syjuco's army of protest signs which you learn were fabricated from construction materials scavenged from the gallery itself. I was also drawn to Kate Bonner's similarly slippery works of MDF board (featuring what look like bits of crudely photocopied books), all of them cut into shapes that don't quite fit together but create a unified whole nonetheless. A projection by Gareth Spor simply and beautifully animates a nearby geometric painting by Piero Passacantando, while nearby Bruno Fazzolari's expansive abstracts construct space in their own dimensions.
Thomas Heinser
Through October 31 - Thomas Heinser: Blickwinkel 2 at Gallery 16. This solo show features Heinser's extraordinary large-format landscape photography, often shot from above looking straight down toward the earth. Freeways are featured, as are airport runways, and sometimes more bucolic vistas. He has a keen eye for composition and framing, and as you look at them the images become abstract and then resolve themselves back into concrete forms. A favorite image of mine involves a container ship cutting under a bridge, with angles formed by the boxes on the ship, the lines on the road. Perspective, shifted.